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Month: November 2015

On Friday, Nov. 27th, I picked up Thomas and Trace McGuire at their home in Harker Heights, TX, headed to Belton Lake for a morning of white bass and hybrid striped bass fishing. This trip was booked through the Fort Hood SKIES program.

7-year-old Trace McGuire with one of two fish he caught at the same time on two of the three lures attached to the 3-armed umbrella rigs we were using.

The fishing has really been spotty lately, and although a cold front was due to arrive today around 1-2pm, it was to be a wet cold front that arrived on a wind shift from the SSE through the E and to the N. The fish typically do not respond as enthusiastically to the approach of wet cold fronts as they do to dry cold fronts which arrive on a wind shift from S, through W, to NW. So, we launched and I really wasn’t sure what to expect in this season of transition.

As we got going, I immediately began scanning for birds working over top of gamefish pushing baitfish to the surface.

We saw some moderate action in this low-light period just following the cloud-obscured sunrise. I saw lots of scattered, suspended bait and gamefish mixed in with the bait, so, we hooked up our downriggers and got down to business.

The fish responded positively to our offerings, and, within the first 20 minutes the boys each boated a hybrid and a white bass. With this solid start under our belt, I felt confident that we could continue to work the downriggers with success, and, the boys enjoyed setting out the lines and lowering and raising the downrigger balls, so, things were good.

The bird activity continued to grow and be more helpful right through the 9 o’clock hour. We essentially drove from one patch of birds to the next and enjoyed single and double hookups on our 3-armed umbrella rigs once we got under the birds.

At 9:30, things got ominously calm and quiet. By 9:40, a strong N wind began to churn the water into whitecaps and the temperature dropped from 70F to 52F in an instant. The cold front had arrived much earlier than forecast.

We had been rained upon all morning and were damp. The boys’ mom had prepared them well for the wet, but the added cold was a bit more than the boys were ready for. We stayed as long as they could endure, but, when hands started stinging and lips started quivering, I knew it was time to head to the ramp.

We saw an immediate downturn in the fishing as the cold front hit — just the opposite of what I’d expect with the arrival of a dry cold front.

We got back to the truck, loaded the boys in the cab, cranked up the heater and they soaked in the warmth as I got the boat on the trailer and ready for travel.

Between the two of them, Thomas and Trace managed exactly 19 fish, all but one of which came on the umbrella rigs. There was definitely opportunity to take fish via casting to them with barely sub-surface retrieves as they pushed shad to the surface and gave their locations away, as well as to take them via a vertical presentation, but both would have required more 1-on-1 attention than the wind would allow for, so, we kept it simple, and simple was effective.

SKIES Unlimited stands for School of Knowledge, Inspiration, Exploration and Skills. SKIES Unlimited classes are open to children of active duty military personnel, retirees, Department of the Army civilians, and to Department of Defense contractors. To enroll in SKIES Unlimited activities, children must be registered with CYSS at Building 121 on 761st Tank Destroyer Avenue (right across from the Chili’s restaurant). Call (254) 287-4592.

There is no charge for registration; parents must bring an ID that shows their affiliation with the military, the child’s shot records, and the report from a recent physical exam. While the SKIES Unlimited programs are not free, many military families are eligible for sizeable credits toward SKIES Unlimited activities. There is a $300 “Army Strong” credit available to each child when their parent is deployed.

TALLY = 19 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F falling into the low 50’s with the approach of a cold front

This balmy Thanksgiving morning I greeted the Knight family of Georgetown, TX, for a morning of hybrid striped bass and white bass fishing on Belton Lake before the feasting festivities began for all of us later in the afternoon.

From left: Robyn, Jaelyn, Jace, and Jeffrey Knight with some of the fish we caught just after it began to brighten up a bit, between 7:15 and 7:45am.

Jeffrey is an irrigation expert with the Ewing company and makes his living teaching customers how to use and troubleshoot Ewing irrigation equipment. Robyn helps run the family’s small business, also irrigation-related, from their home. 14-year-old Jaelyn and 12-year-old Jace stay busy with school and sports. The Knight’s came out with me once before during Spring Break 2014 when Robyn researched an all-Central Texas “stay-cation” featuring i-Fly, Top Golf, a visit to the Austin Junk Cathedral, and fishing on Belton with me.

The weather was very unstable today with Gulf moisture streaming in on a SSE wind in advance of an approaching cold front due in tomorrow around 2pm. We had wind, rain, clouds, heavy clouds, light clouds, and very spotty fishing.

The bird action which has pointed the way to fish for the past 2 trips did not develop until around 10:45 today, and even when it did, it only lasted for about 25 minutes.

We caught a first-light bite and then the late morning bird-bite, with a lot of looking and trying in between, punctuated with occasional success on the downriggers.

When all was said and done, we put a total of 33 fish in the boat, including short hybrid, keeper hybrid, short white bass, keeper white bass, and one largemouth bass. That hard cold front last Saturday really took the wind out of the sails and things just haven’t bounced back well. With yet another hard cold front now due in this weekend, the fishing won’t be getting any easier any time soon.

I’m hoping for a pre-frontal bite tomorrow morning, and am then planning to ride out the cold front, staying off the water through Sunday.

Troy is a U.S. Army combat veteran who served honorably in the infantry. Gary is a retired electrical supply salesman who, according to Troy, could “sell a ketchup Popsicle to a woman in white gloves”. Troy settled down in Killeen with his wife, Lori, and their 3 kids after he left active duty. Lori’s dad, mom, and grandma all made it down from Illinois to visit for the holidays, and so Lori and Troy surprised Gary with an early Christmas present in the form of a fishing trip. We were originally scheduled for this coming Friday, but as the weather forecast continued to deteriorate, we decided to move the trip time up while it was still warm and fairly dry.

As we got going this morning, I was hoping for a rerun of yesterday’s helpful bird activity. We lived through one fishless hour as we checked a number of areas intending to vertically jig if we found heavily schooled fish. At exactly 8:04am, the first of 3 helpful bouts of bird activity led us to successful fishing. All fish we caught today came in under 20 feet of water.

As we “got close” to fish with the help of the birds, we then found the “spot on the spot” using sonar. Given that the fish we found this morning were in fairly shallow water, we cast our slabs horizontally and worked them back “lift-drop” style with good results. The bait of choice was the Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs Model 180 in 3/4 oz. in white halographic equipped with a G-Stinger hook in addition to the stock treble hook.

When the fishing slowed down, we turned to downrigging, running the equipment at 17-19 feet deep for scattered fish suspended slightly deeper.

We caught keeper hybrid, short hybrid, keeper white bass and short white bass, as well as one largemouth and a surprise longnose gar.

The fish definitely fed in spurts today and were done by around 10:15am. We boated a total of 35 fish this morning while they were turned on.

This morning, November 24th, I welcomed aboard Mr. Steve Niemeier and his 10-year-old grandson, Caleb Fowler. The pair has been fishing with me several times each year since 2011.

Persistence paid off today. After a fishless first 90 minutes, the wind started to move and clouds built in, turning the bite on for a full 2 hours for Steve Niemeier and his grandson, Caleb Fowler.

Caleb, a student at Kennedy Powell Elementary School in Temple had the day off, along with the rest of the Temple Independent School District, and Steve, like a lot of (wise) middle-aged hard-chargers, has come to realize that if he’s going to stay with it for the “long haul”, periodic breaks to go fishing are a must!

The weather and the fishing were both kind of funky today. We started off dry, cold, clear and windless and finished up humid, warmer, cloudy, and breezy. We went nearly 1.5 hours without catching a fish under the calm, bright conditions, but, about 20 minutes after the wind came up, things started happening. The fishing peaked from 9:30 to 10:30 as the grey clouds built in and the wind increased steadily up to about SSE12.

The very productive pattern that we’ve been on just fell apart with the strong cold front that pushed through on Saturday. That fishing involved finding heavily concentrated fish in 12-26 feet of water depending on time of day, and working both vertically and horizontally for them within 24″ of bottom.

Today, we found fish inhabiting the upper third of the water column, chasing bait long and hard over great spans of open water. For the first time this season bird activity made a significant contribution to our success. This isn’t to say one can expect to find fish anywhere birds are found. Rather, they have to be “read” and responded to accordingly.

By watching the rate of travel of the birds as they kept up with hungry schools of white bass and hybrid stripers, we could tell the fish were really moving quickly — too quickly, in fact, to make a stationary approach inadequate. So, we stayed on the move by using downriggers with our baits kept constantly adjusted so as to be just slightly shallower than the fish we saw on sonar.

We wound up with a mixed bag of keeper hybrid, short hybrid, and white bass of all sizes. The baits we chose — Pet Spoons on one rod and White Willow Spoons on the other rod — worked equally well in imitating the bait which was generally around 2 to 2.25″ long.

The fish quit feeding at right around 10:45. We stayed a bit longer, but boated only one “straggler” for the additional 45 minutes of effort.

This afternoon I fished with Rick Klein and his wife, Terri, of Sun City in Georgetown, TX. Rick has fished with me twice before, but this was Terri’s first time on my boat. I enjoyed their company.

Terri and Rick Klein braved the post-frontal chill this afternoon to put 32 fish in the boat. Both were glad their new car came equipped with “bun warmers” for the ride home!!!

Catching fish was an uphill battle today. Rick has fished long enough to know before I even said anything as to why I was concerned about how things would pan out today — post-frontal conditions after a hard cold front’s passage like we experienced yesterday always make for tough conditions. The high, clear, “bluebird” skies and near calm wind just put the fish off until some wind and clouds return.

We looked for fish in 7 different areas today, and only found congregated fish at one area. Unfortunately, the fish in that one area were not exceptional fish. Of the 32 fish we boated, only 6 white bass were of legal size.

We used vertical tactics right up until 90 minutes before sunset and then switched over to downrigging as the fish scattered more and more.

The cold front definitely brought in some helpful bird life. I saw 5 times more gulls today than last week, and spotted the first loon I’ve seen this fall working, too. The gull action is not very helpful yet, as they seem to be working over small, migrating pods of smallish white bass that are pushing shad to the surface just briefly and sporadically. This is reminiscent of summer time “popcorn” schooling, only with birds sprinkled over top of it all.

This cold front did not and will not kill the great fishing we’ve had, as the water surface temperature was still 66-67F, making the water and the fish we caught in the 50F air feel toasty. We simply need some fishy weather and the bite will go on as long as the water is in the 60’s. I suspect the water temperature may actually rise a tad toward the end of this Thanksgiving week, if the current forecast holds.

During the afternoon of Nov. 19th I met with a boat full of buddies from Sun City retirement community in Georgetown, TX. I welcomed back returning guest Pat Sprague. Pat brought with him Bob Hansell, a U.S. Marine Corp veteran, and Dennis Healy, a fairly new resident at Sun City.

Pat Sprague scored our largest fish of the trip with this solid hybrid going right at 4.50 pounds. It fell for a bladebait fished just under the surface amidst other such fish forcing shad to the surface in the late afternoon.

Dennis Healy boated this nice 3 pound class hybrid striped bass just minutes after Pat’s large fish came aboard. This fish also fell for a bladebait fished high up in the water column where actively feeding fish were patrolling for shad.

From left: Dennis Healy, Bob Hansell, and Pat Sprague with the 3 largest white bass we culled from among the dozens we landed. These fish ranged from 13-14″.

This afternoon I met with a boatful of buddies from Sun City retirement community in Georgetown, TX. I welcomed back returning guest Pat Sprague. Pat brought with him Bob Hansell, a U.S. Marine Corp veteran, and Dennis Healy, a fairly new resident at Sun City.
After a morning during which we had to work for our fish thanks to tough, post-frontal conditions with characteristic clear skies, bright sun, and light winds, we continued down that path this afternoon.
We got off to a solid start as a gentle breeze that began blowing at mid-day moved the water a bit and turned the fish on until it resided. We got right down to business catching fish within minutes of departing from the courtesy dock, and caught about 1/3 of our entire afternoon’s catch at this location inside of our first hour on the water.
Over the next hour or so we made a number of quick stops to fish for congregations of fish we found on sonar. As was the case this morning, the bite was pretty subdued. Despite seeing a lot of fish on sonar, we caught fish only at a moderate rate until around 3:40p when the sun’s angle got sufficiently low to key the beginning of the evening’s low light bite.
At this time we positioned ourselves over a 20-22 foot flat, near the first breakline connecting the flat to deeper water. A I watched sonar, I could follow fish moving up out of deeper water and onto the flat to feed. Feeding gulls helped us with fish location, and sonar helped us zero right in on the “spot on the spot”.
We caught a mix of just-short hybrid, several keeper hybrid and white bass of all sizes at this area. These fish were numerous, but quite scattered, and so we opted for a horizontal casting tactic using bladebaits. Depending on fish activity, we fished these baits everywhere from just barely subsurface to hugging bottom.
This area produced as many fish as the first location, but it took a bit longer to put that catch together just because of how scattered the fish were, thus requiring several casts per fish caught versus the “one after another” results we experienced while fishing vertically just after getting on the water.
Smaller baits continued to produce best for us, with the 3/8 oz. Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs Model 180 slab producing best when we went vertical, and the 3/8 oz. Cicada bladebait producing best when we went horizontal.
There was next to no sunset bite tonight thanks to the winds going completely calm about 30 minutes prior. For their efforts, the fellows wound up boating 84 fish this evening, enjoying both being with one another and in the great outdoors on a nice, clear, dry day here in central Texas.

On the morning of Nov. 19th I fished with Pastor Kip Nanninga, his son, Josiah, and one of Kip’s congregants, Andy Maindelle (my younger brother). We fished Belton Lake, targeting white bass and hybrid striped bass using artificial lures.

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From left: Andy Maindelle, Kip Nanninga, and Josiah Nanninga. Despite tough, high-pressure, post-frontal conditions, we still caught both good quality and quantity today. These white bass, all over 13″ were taken on bladebaits beneath aggressive white bass seen pushing shad to the surface under birds.

Kip serves as a shepherd and coach to the many small group leaders associated with Hill Country Bible Church in Austin. Hill Country is a non-denominational, multi-campus church with a vision to make hope and fellowship available to people “within walking distance” by establishing neighborhood small groups throughout the Austin area. Josiah is a middle school student and the eldest of Kip’s 5 children. Andy works at Blizzard – a company focused on video game entertainment.
We faced tough post-frontal conditions this morning with bright, clear skies and calm winds. We launched at 6:40a and began catching fish within minutes finding plentiful, albeit somewhat reluctant white bass and hybrid striped bass on bladebaits in approximately 10-12 feet of water. When I saw how many fish were showing on sonar versus the slow results we were experiencing, I decided to move us out of this area fairly quickly, opting to fish where the very light breeze that was present was at least rippling the water versus staying at the flat calm area at which we began.
Upon arrival we noted fish chasing shad to the surface and a few gulls arrived in response to this activity. We caught fish at a moderate rate here. In retrospect, this area gave up the best quality fish of the trip, with a majority of the white bass going right around the 13+ inch mark. When the fish stopped chasing and the gulls lifted and left, the fishing wound down quickly as the light breeze nearly stopped and the sun’s rays soaked into the water.
We then entered the toughest 90 minute window of the trip at this point. We did a lot of looking, occasionally finding fish, however, these fish often moved quickly before we could get turned around, positioned over top of them, and get our slabs down to them, or they failed to perk up at our offerings if we were successful in maintaining contact with them. Those schools we found that did show interest typically gave up fish just a few at a time. We found it tough during that time to get a frenzied bite going beneath us.
Finally, right around 10am, a light NE breeze developed and began to move the water. The fish responded favorably after this wind worked on the water for about 15 minutes. We made a move to the 5th area that we would fish this morning and found fish in feeding mode in about 24 feet of water. These fish really put on the feedbag for about 30 minutes. During this spurt, we boated over 80 fish one after another with 3 or 4 of our 4 rods loaded up with a fish at any given time for the first 20 minutes or so of this burst.
By the time this feed was over it was approaching 11am, the time at which the morning feed has been winding down lately. We took a look at a few other areas, finding some gulls working in two areas. As we investigated, we found smalls schools of white bass forcing shad to the surface, and the birds responding to the commotion.
Chips, salsa, and the lunch special #54 at Sol de Jalisco in Morgan’s Point sounded better at this point than hunting and pecking to scrape up a few more fish, so, we called it a good morning with 141 fish boated and headed in for lunch.

This hybrid striped bass was taken by Clint Murphy on a silver slab in 17 feet of water around 11:30am. It weighed exactly 5.00 pounds on a certified Boga Grip scale.

These fish were taken in the first two hours of the trip as the rain and high winds began to move on from east to west. These fish were taken in water under 12′ deep on bladebaits worked horizontally. The fish on the left measured 14 3/8″ and the fish on the right measured 14.00″. All 146 fish caught this morning were released.

Clint and I touched based 4 or 5 time prior to meeting this morning, starting as far back as last Wednesday when the extended NOAA forecast showed a wet cold front due to hit central Texas sometime today. As NOAA’s “shot group” tightened as time went on, it appeared that the majority of the rain and wind would take place in the pre-dawn hours, leaving still-cloudy skies, tolerable temperatures, and falling wind speeds. I felt confident, given the extraordinarily productive fishing we’ve enjoyed on Belton over the last 3 weeks, and given the still-high water temperatures, that we could catch fish today as long as it was safe to do so.

Clint, who makes his living in the concrete business, met me at the boat ramp right around 6:15a. I parked on the ramp so the torrents of rain still falling would drain out of the boat as we waited for the storm front to pass. Clint transferred over to my truck and we got to shoot the breeze a bit before it got light. I took note that as I was approaching the boat ramp, I saw deer up and feeding, and, right at 7:00am, just as the heaviest of the rain ended and before we launched, a murder of crows flew over the parking lot in search of breakfast. I always look for such natural “sign” as an indicator of what the fish will or will not do. I was encouraged as be got on the water, despite the previous several hours of turbulent weather and the now falling air temperatures.

Suffice it to say that the fish were very much still in high gear today. We put a total of 146 fish in the boat including white bass, hybrid striped bass, and even a few largemouth. I was very pleasantly surprised to find fish regularly driving bait to the surface and I was also pleasantly surprised to find fish shallower on average than I’ve encountered them over the past 3 weeks. Of the 146 fish we landed today, none came out of more than 20 feet of water, with many coming from as little as 6-7 feet of water. Even when the fish “slid” off the shallow structure toward the first breakline, they stayed higher up on the flat versus slipping down to the shoulder of the break.

Where fish were in under 12 feet of water and mostly scattered horizontally, we most effectively fished with Cicada bladebaits fished horizontally. Where fish were deeper and more heavily congregated, we used slabs fished vertically in a minimum of 15 feet of water.

The final hour on the water, from 11a to noon, was the most productive window of an overall very productive morning. During this time the wind blew the most consistently and with the greatest velocity that we experienced over the duration of the trip. During this final 60 minutes, we boated exactly 58 fish and finally just left them biting when we made a 4 hour trip into a 5+ hour trip and I had to head in for a commitment I’d made at church.

As has been the case over this past 3 week’s worth of awesome fishing, large hybrid were in short supply — only 3 keeper were boated today. However, today’s take of white bass far exceeded the average catch of the past few weeks, with at least half of our white bass being solid keeper-sized fish, with the top two taping in at 14.00″ and 14 3/8″.

One of the reasons Clint booked today after our last outing chasing schooling largemouth on Decker Lake back in the summer was to see how I put sonar to work for me in finding fish, and how I employed the use of slabs and bladebaits. Clint’s desire is to put these lessons to use on Lake Georgetown near his home.

We really dodged a bullet in that this cold front did not bring in severe cold at a time of year when we are overdue for some frigid weather. This incredible bite on Belton continues. There are now but a handful of open dates over the next 3 weeks (the time over which I expect this kind of fast fishing to continue). Please don’t delay getting a trip on the books if you’ve been thinking about it. This bite will only degrade as the water temperatures falls with shortening days and more frequent and severe cold fronts.

After letting all of my clients know last week about the exceptional fishing taking place on Belton right now, I had a number of folks call me right away to try to strike while the iron is hot. This afternoon, after all 4 of us set time aside to corporately worship the Lord this morning, I was joined by Marvin Waley, Danny Marriott, and James Roppolo. These fellows are all friends from the same church in Georgetown, TX.

Good fellowship and good fishing today under grey skies and breezy conditions. From left: Danny Marriott, James Roppolo, and Marvin Waley.

That is a magnum white bass James is holding — right at 14.5 inches and chunky. Like many other white bass today, it fell for a small slab intended to match the plentiful threadfin shad the white bass are now preying upon as the water temperature cools.

I had the pleasure of fishing with Danny and his elderly parents back in 2009; he works as his church’s facilities manager. Marvin joined me for the first time today, and is recently retired from the food service industry. James also came out with me for the first time today, and is the vice-president of a construction company. Each had an ample supply of entertaining hunting and fishing stories from years gone by. My favorite: The one James told of a drunk teal hunter who critiqued James’ unsatisfactory job of filleting a black drum. When James tactfully offered the knife to the expert carver, said carver promptly inserted said knife into the palm of his own hand. Witnessing this, the drunk teal hunter’s “friend” called for whiskey. No one gathered nearby was sure if it was for drinking, for sterilizing the wound, or both!!

Once again, with the great bite that is taking place as the water begins to cool, I was able to put all 3 men on fish from start to finish for 4 solid hours, thus amassing a catch of 162 fish including white bass, hybrid striped bass, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, and crappie.

The majority of our catch came in the first two hours when the fish were more aggressive under more breezy conditions. During this time we found fish consistently holding on the first breakline out from the bank in 22-26 feet of water. These fish were heavily schooled along the bottom and in the lower 2 feet of the water column and were prime for catching on slabs fished vertically. As soon as I saw such fish signatures on sonar I marked them and then used Spot Lock to hold over them. We made a number of “short hops” in 3 distinct areas doing this manner of fishing.

Around 4pm the nice breeze we’d enjoyed began to taper down, and the fishing tapered down with it. Around this time we spotted some light bird activity in the vicinity of Area 1627 over a ~20′ flat. Gulls were in the air and a few cormorants were in the water, but the gulls were not focused on just one patch of water, rather, they were patrolling over ~3-4 acres consistently. We idled around with sonar, found some fish and fancast with bladebaits and landed some decent white bass, but both the bird and fish activity settled to nil within about 20 minutes, so we moved on.

During the last hour, we fished Area 1625 by Spot Locking in 14 feet of water and fancasting bladebaits up into slightly shallower water. We found willing white bass in small wolfpacks patrolling this fairly slow-tapering area. These fish gave their location away as they broke the surface of the now-calm water as they chased shad up to the surface.

By the time dark fell, we’d put a grand total of 162 fish in the boat. As has been the case all through this excellent bite, ~1 in about 4 fish was a keeper white bass, with slightly shorter whites and small hybrid mixed in. The fish definitely showed a preference for small silver slabs.

This past Tuesday I fished a full day trip with Tom and Trisha Wells of Sun City, TX. The Wells are members of the Sun City Hunting & Fishing Club and were in attendance when I was invited to speak there both this past spring and in the spring of 2014. One of the things I highlighted was how commonly overlooked the excellent November fishing is on Belton Lake. Every year, as the water temperatures fall from the 80’s down to the low 60’s, the white bass and hybrid bite on Belton goes through the roof. Thankfully, Tom and Trisha listened, and took me up on a day on the water. They were handsomely rewarded, landing a total of 346 fish between 6:30am and 4:00pm. And, truth be known, we “left ’em biting”.

Everything was feeding heavily today — big hybrid, small hybrid, big white bass, and small white bass. The fishing simply doesn’t get any faster than it is on Belton right now! Tom landed this nice hybrid striper on a bladebait in 14′ of water within an hour of sunrise.

Tricia, also using a bladebait in 14′ of water, landed this award-winning white bass just minutes after Tom’s hybrid, shown above, was caught. This white bass weighed exactly 2.00 pounds and measured 15 3/8″, thus qualifying Trisha for a TPWD “Big Fish Award”, putting her on the path toward Elite Angler status.

Tom and Trisha met and married in college, became a Vietnam-era Air Force family (where Tom learned the trade of a radiologist), and recently retired from private practice in Homer, Alaska, settling in Sun City, TX, near grandkids (and kids) living in Buda, TX. They love the Lord, their family, … and fishing!! They even run their own 22′ center console, primarily on Lake Georgetown.

There is no other way to put it … we had a once-in-a-lifetime kind of day on the water, amassing the second greatest daily catch I’ve ever put a guided party onto.

The day actually got off to a bit of a slower start as near-calm winds and a bright sun right at sunrise put the fish in a bit of a funk. But, the south wind soon kicked in, and we relocated to be in a segment of lake where the water was being moved by that wind, and the fish responded well. The fish then cranked it up about 10 notches when grey cloud cover accompanied that southerly wind, and it was “Katy bar the door” from that point on.

We caught fish on Cicada blade baits, 3/8 oz. slabs, and Hazy Eye Shad tandem rigs for 6 hours straight in the morning, right up until 12:30p when the bite softened just a bit. We came off the water, had a great lunch served up by Sol de Jalisco on FM2271 near Temple Lake Park, and then headed right back out and fished another 2.5 hours until 4pm, when Tom had to pull the rod from Trisha’s hand and head their Ford F-250 back south to Georgetown.

The approach was very similar at each area where we found fish on sonar. As I approached a likely area at idle speed, I’d see a bottom-oriented school of fish, then we’d all work together to stop the boat on a dime and very quickly get baits in the water before we passed away from the school, or they continued swimming on, or both. The critical thing was to hook a single fish and get it struggling on the line, thus captivating the attention of the remainder of the school, getting that school to stay put right under the boat. Once that was accomplished, we “Spot Locked” on the fish and would catch fish after fish from that school.

Although there were ebbs and flows in the action, the action never stopped once it got started today, and the fish were still biting as we concluded our efforts at 4p!!

If you have any vacation time left this year, or are retired and are just sitting around the house, NOW IS THE TIME! I don’t know how else to say this. This isn’t wishful thinking or marketing hype, this is accurate, just-off-the-water reporting from the last 3 trips which saw 267 fish, 143 fish, and now 346 fish come over the gunwales.

Belton fishing is truly white hot right now, and, barring flooding or an extended, severe cold snap, looks like it will be this way for at least 2-3 weeks to come.